So the Sunday after this coming one, I’m moving to Germany as part of a year-long homestay program. Germany is an awful long way from Texas, and there’s lots of things I’ve heard about that are going to be different from here in the US–that people are very serious about recycling ( 
), that public transportation is very good ( 
), and that younger people are very serious about going to clubs to dance ( :eek: ). Is there any advice that German dopers or dopers familiar with Germany would like to offer?
Try every local beer you can. Eat at the Schnell Imbiss stands that are everywhere. Try to spend some of your club time seeing the architecture, churches, etc. What town will you be living in?
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Toilet flushing mechanisms have 2 buttons: a smaller flush for smaller loads, and a larger button for when you really want to drop anchor. Saves water
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Glass is recycled in separate bins according to color. Don’t drop amber glass in the green glass bin, they really don’t like that.
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You can discover the pleasure of drinking other soda flavors, such as Lift and Mezzo Mix
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Don’t jaywalk, even if there are no cars around.
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The bread in the basket on the table served in restaurants costs extra
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you can buy beer in local kiosks and quicky marts and drink it in public places.
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Gasoline prices are by the liter, not gallon. And for a moment you hoped… :o
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There is a channel 1 on TV
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Portion sizes in fast food places are smaller
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The concept of personal space is different from what you may be used to here. Personal space starts from directly underneath your clothing, not a foot around you (or so). Consequently in crowded places people will brush past you with body contact, sometimes with arms in order to say get to the front of a bus or train.
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Beer comes in 3 sizes at a bar. Default is 0.5 liter. Or you can order the “mas” which is 1 liter. There is a smaller 0.4 l serving which some jokingly refer to as “lady-size”.
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Cell phones are referred to as handies.
Im sure there are more that’s all I can think of right now as my brain shuts down on a Friday afternoon. In reality there is nothing to be afraid of, Germany is a great place to live in and visit. Standards for healthcare and cleanliness are high And they’ll be just as curious about what things are like in Texas as you’ll be about them. Have fun!
Yeah they are serious about recycling and also solar power. Each city has a different system of sorting and it can be a bit confusing. The train systems are great, you have intercity, interregion, and ICE which is the high speed. I would strongly recommend using the trains. I don’t know about clubbing and that stuff.
Where will you be? We usually go to Frankfurt, and then we usually travel to a town near Stuttgart, Freiburg is also very nice. The Alps and the black forest are great, we usually do a week or so bicycle tour, I would recommend gaining access to a bike for running errands.
Bring piles of money… my recent visits to Germany reiterated how strong the euro is against the dollar
Bring a warm jacket… it gets very cold in most parts of Germany in the Winter
Learn German… while many young people speak English, the older generation doesn’t
From my travels, there were alot fewer English-speakers than I thought there would tbe, in Hamburg and Munich (in all age groups). I ran into quite a few people who knew English mostly from the lyrics in the music they listened to and the movies they watched, but not enough to be considered fluent.
That reminds me of a very funny experience I once had at the Saturn Department store. I politely asked the clerk if he spoke English, at which point he panicked, excused himself and ran off to talk to a co-worker. Eventually it became a dilemna as the group grew to about 5 people, all conversing among themselves. Apparently none of them considered themselves fluent in English. They went to a storeroom and grabbed another co-worker who looked confused as if he had just woken up or was inebriated. They stumbled and brought him over to the counter, pointed at him, then pointed at me and exclaimed “English!” I think he reacted by burping, then seemed to have gotten the message because he quickly perked up, faced me, and proceeded to assist me in perfect English 
I had the opposite experience. There were a lot more English speakers than I thought there would be.
Still, I tried to exercise my rusty German when I could. I think my last night in Europe while checking in in Dusseldorf was when I was finally able to have an entire conversation in German. Or so I thought; my wife pointed out that I uttered si in every single circumstance I should have said ja. And Spanish isn’t even my first language.
That reminds me… Belgium was strange. There was a disproportionately large number of Spanish-speaking natives there. As soon as shopkeepers and such heard us speaking in Spanish, a great number of them would respond in kind! Again, I’m a native English speaker.
And just to be complete, I was worried about France, and using English was no problem. I did try to utter my ancient high school French most of the time, so maybe that opened bridges for me.
My experience as an exchange student (a long time ago) was that academics and fellow students could generally speak and understand English pretty well. Once I asked one of my professors if he would let me write my term paper in English, because I didn’t think my German was up to the task, and he allowed it. (Otherwise I did manage to do all my work in German.)
The same was often true of professionals (e.g. doctors), anyone whose regular work included frequent dealings with foreigners, and business people who either traveled often or were fairly high up in their companies. I remember seeing Hertz advertisements in German magazines with the slogan, “Be a Hertz Number One Customer”.
OTOH working class people such as bus drivers, Imbiss servers, and store clerks usually didn’t speak English, IME–again, unless they often dealt with foreigners, as in the case of airline personnel and the like.
Brush up on your Formal German a bit. (Failing to remember your Sies can get you some grief, particularly in localized businesses)
. . . and bring a Canadian flag.
Thanks for the thread. My daughter is going to college for a year in Germany in a month. She visited in the spring, to test her German. She went to Berlin and Munich, and found that in Munich it was very hard to get people to speak German with her, but not very hard in Berlin. She stayed in what was East Berlin, so I suppose the older people learned Russian, not English in school.
Since the OP is asking for advice, this is more suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
If drinking beer from a glass boot; keep the toe down.
I thought it read “at which point he panicked, exposed himself and ran off to talk to a co-worker.”
:smack:
Oh, everyone in Germany understands enough English. I’ve lived there. What they don’t like, quite understandably, is someone presuming they understand English. Whip out your Berlitz, politely butcher the language a bit, and they’ll switch to their English, which is better than your German. Together, you’ll work it out.
Germans can be just as shy and embarrassed about using their English as English speakers are shy about trying out their high school German.
Oh, another thing you can do, is go down town and sign up for a German for foreigners class. They’re relatively cheap and you’ll be in class with a bunch of Turks or whoever is the most common immigrant these days, but it’s fun being an immigrant and learning to say “my name is…” with all the other non-German immigrants. It really is a fun experience.
Try to get paid in euros.
Almost forgot. The legal drinking age for the low-octane stuff is 18. Cheers!
It’s actually 16 for everything except distilled spirits, if nobody changed a law while I wasn’t looking…
When searching for places to live, pay attention to the following:
- make sure you tick ‘ebk’ (built-in kitchen) under the advanced search options…the majority of rentals in Germany come without a built-in kitchen. I know it doesn’t make any sense but that’s the way it is. When I was looking for my place when I moved to Mannheim/Heidelberg my initial search brought back 259 results, after clicking ‘ebk’ only 39
- be prepared to pay upto 3 times your ‘cold’ rent for the deposit
- be prepared to pay upto 3 times your ‘warm’ rent as commission
When al was said and done I had paid almost 6 months worth of rent before I got my key and could move in.
Cold rent is the rent just for the place
Warm rent is the rent including utilities (excl electricity and phone). Sometime in March you will receive a true-up from your landlord/lady for the prior year (Water, sewage, trash removal, etc, etc)
Most cities shut down on Sundays - church or the bar are the only options when it rains
I just left Germany after 18months so feel free to ask me if you have more specific questions.
Oh one last thing - a credit card is not a credit card. What most banks refer to as a credit card is actually a payment delayment card where the balance on the card will be deducted 4 weeks later from your bank account (there are only a few cards where you can set the % of how much each month you pay).
Watch out for Nazis. I’ve heard those guys are real assholes.